Principal Bio

Denise D. Browning

Ms. Browning is the Founder and President of Hunter Ventures LLC, a twenty year old business that invests in, assists with capital raising for, and provides financial consulting services to non-profits, municipalities, real estate developers, and start up and medium size businesses. Most recently, Ms. Browning advised, invested in, and worked in a startup family business known as the Dog Ranch Resort, a dog boarding, grooming, daycare, and training business. In seven years, the business has grown to employ 17 people, and own and operate two locations. Additionally, she was a Consultant to the Downtown Mobile Alliance, a business improvement district, in Mobile, AL for 10 years. She developed and promoted business financial incentives, and consulted in the areas of business formation, startup, and expansion. She was instrumental in putting together a business plan and helped to execute that plan for a retail incubator known as the Urban Emporium. The Urban Emporium has operated as a non-profit for twelve years. Her clients included all of the incubator retailers, Sway, Velvet Lab, The Haunted Bookshop, The Crescent Theater, Braided River Brewing Corp. (a startup micro-brewery), a multifamily ISP, and Austal USA (a publicly traded international ship builder). All are based in the Gulf Coast Region of Alabama. She regularly serves as a coach for businesses involved in Alabama Launchpad, and participates in the business plan evaluation process.

She was an interim Executive Manager of an early stage venture capital investment club focused on providing capital to women-lead businesses in the mid-west. Prior to that, Ms. Browning co-managed a $1.6 billion Non Rated Municipal Bond portfolio for Allstate Investments. Ms. Browning began her career at Continental Bank, where she was a Vice President for the Real Estate Group. She originated whole loans, and sold real estate loans and financial products nationally out of Chicago. Ms. Browning has an MBA in Finance from the University of Chicago, and a BS in Business Management - Marketing, from Purdue University.

She served on the Board of the Barton Academy Foundation, a non-profit created to reoccupy the oldest architecturally significant public school building in the State of Alabama. She was the board Treasurer and volunteer bookkeeper, and was instrumental in obtaining New Markets Tax Credits and Historic Tax Credits at the State and Federal levels in order to rehabilitate the historic school building in the heart of Downtown Mobile. For nine years she served on the Board of Educators Resource. She is a licensed real estate Broker in the State of Alabama, and a single engine instrument rated private pilot.

Through a prior partnership, BM&O Consulting, she assisted businesses with strategic planning, business plan writing, and raising capital by sharing expertise in operations, marketing, sales, finance, competitive industry analysis, mergers and acquisitions, and other stock ownership/equity concerns. BM&O's client space included multi-site physical therapy, new and used heavy equipment machinery, commercial pharmaceuticals and compounding, telecom - satellite, security, and ISP, media and children’s entertainment, retail, locally grown healthy cooking alternatives, food industry franchising and fast casual dining, relaxed fine dining, and software firms in the education and municipality space.